New Avengers: The New Initiative

CHAPTER I

TW: CHARACTER DEATH, BLOOD, GORE(?)

THADDEUS ROSS' POV

(ONE YEAR LATER) (LOCATION: THE RAFT)

Damn that Tony Stark. Could he not have found someone else's career and reputation to ruin? Former General Ross lamented in his current prison cell. He was transferred to a lesser surveillance section of the RAFT after the transportation of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov. Alone in his thoughts and constantly watched by the highly trained security guards and one of Tony Stark's absurd and compensating creations continuously monitoring him, silently judging him as the once highly esteemed and well-renowned general now turned into a scandal and traitor to the citizens. And there was no one else to blame but Tony Stark.

Although Ross acknowledged that he made a grave mistake by abducting Stark's younger brother and conducting experiments on him, he wouldn't have resorted to extreme measures if Stark only had signed the accords and stayed out of Ross' affairs; he would have chosen someone else otherwise. All Ross wanted was to extract the experimental serum from Barton's system and create a group of enhanced individuals. He never intended to savagely slice into Barton and would have allowed him to leave after wiping his memory clean, provided that he survived the extraction process. Honestly, Ross did not care about the fate of the Avengers and would have had them imprisoned or used the enhanced ones to his advantage once he had the chance. The trials of Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, and Wanda Maximoff were intriguing to learn about on the news, and they all deserved their sentences. However, Stark's newly documented abilities, the serum in Steve Rogers' body, or Wanda Maximoff's powers would have been the most beneficial in strengthening military defenses.

The deafening sound of sirens filled the air as flashing red lights illuminated the prison. The guards, caught off guard by the sudden commotion, hurriedly scrambled to grab their emergency weapons and shields. Someone had breached or escaped from the RAFT? A second time?! The military had taken great liberties to strengthen security and design the building better than Alcatraz: so impenetrable that no one could break in or out. Who was responsible for the alarms? Ross initially assumed it was Rogers; he should have been more skeptical about Stark's so-called 'Hulk-proofed glass' or that AI abomination: 'TADASHI' or whatever stupid name he had decided. The haunting echoes of terrified and gut-wrenching screaming and groaning of presumingly brutally beaten security officers, the massacre ultimately confirmed by his clear view now obstructed by blood spatter produced from decapitated heads and deceased bodies thrown and smashed against the window. Rogers was insane; the pre-existing casualties on his hands were already proof of that, but this was deranged and unhinged behavior, even for Rogers. Ross, horrified and disturbed by the brutal carnage, internally voiced. As he examined the bodies, he noticed something even more strange and distressing: scorch marks, missing chucks, and exposed bone around the neck and chest. Some had a pinkish-red fluid, formerly their eyes, leaking from their eyelids and streaming down their cheeks; others had them completely burned out and left two empty cavities, while the rest had a hazy bluish-green color in their irises, almost as if someone blinded them. Maybe Rogers wasn't the one responsible for this.

Suddenly, a bluish-green radiance, a shinier version of the one Ross noticed in the lifeless eyes of the victims, emitted throughout the corridor, which increased in luminance as the individual, undoubtedly responsible for the bloodbath, entered the area. Despite the blood coating most of his window, Ross clearly saw the person in question; it was a man who appeared 5'10 and looked like he was in his mid-twenties or early thirties. He wore a formal white shirt, brown pants, and black boots, but the most prominent about his outfit was his torn-ended red hood, which didn't attempt to conceal his appearance. His brown hair was sticking out from under the hood, and his eyes stared coldly at Ross; however, those eyes looked unnatural due to how almost reptilian they looked, how slanted they were, and how they displayed a mix of a hazel brown and a demonic blood-red. The person currently revealed nine stones, the ones responsible for the glow in the division and hovering a few inches over his hand and in a circular motion; he smiled almost gleefully as the stones brightened even more and the glass wall, the only barrier protecting Ross from the assassin, shattered into tiny pieces. Having no means of defending himself, Ross backed himself into a corner as the person slowly approached him.